Bobbaro

Tracer, thank you. I see you all over this place being helpful. I am not sure about just what I want to do. I'll try to do an uninstall-reinstall like you suggested. Then I don't know whether I'll go for a deal like you mentioned or for a new card. I have a hesitency on cards as I worry about some other games I play and whether they will still work. But it is very comforting to have someone standing behind me like you have. I'll post on results.

Still can not find the key to this problem. A clue may be that the Directx trouble shooter display window indicates that the three accellerator catigories are NOT AVAILABLE. That is to say Direct Draw, 3d, and textue.I wonder what is with that situation. The Directx test of Direct Draw works fine. Directx says a simular problem to mine can be caused by entering a generic entry for monitor type, but all that I can find is specific to mine. I have upgraded the driver set for the video card. I hope I did it right.

The CMBB activates, then goes to a black screen, followed by a blue window with Directx test options of Accept or Skip to Next. Accept results in CMBB mode quitting and going back to the desktop. Skip to Next returns a Program Error message "Could not initialize direct3d Graphics" I have an Intell III 5OO MgHtz board and an ATI Rage IIc AGP vidio card. I downloaded and installed Directx 8.1 Same result with the Demo. Need driver update? More Advanced Vidio Card?

In actions I have read about, often some platoon leader would find out the loss and either take over or be assigned and one of his sergents would take his squad. I suppose even a member of the HQ group would step in for essential roles. This is perhaps represented somewhat by the assumption that losses in HQ units always leave the CO in command. But when they are all gone, then what. In the campaigns though, such a totally killed unit should be replaced somehow, by being in some abstract way concocted but there none the less.

A Reject bout interrupted - - My match with Vitalis is on hold as my mail server is down for refurbishment. I don't know when these guys are going to get their faecies lined up. Should have been by now. SuperTed, kindly inform Vitalis in case he misses this posting. I will send him an email as soon as I find the system up. Bobbaro Thanks a bunch there Ted, the elves in the system are now on track and I have recieved Vitalis' turn. [ 12-28-2001: Message edited by: Bobbaro ]</p>

Let no expression of praise go un-noticed. And let no negative report of residence go unpunished. NOT in Australia? You sound disappointed. Are there no sheep in the UK? How lonesome.

A very excellent idea. Also one of the constraints on design is that victory is so much in the hands of the game engines limited victory conditions. Along with such an injection into play as set out here lies also the possibility of a variety of ways for victory conditions to be enlarged upon. One way that already exists is to override the numerical results with conditions set out in the pregame briefing. If breifing were updatable that would be even more of an opportunity. This would not affect the engine evaluation at all, but like buying rules are player designed and selected, it would be a designer feature. Another way would be a take off on the idea of this topic, to have VLs designer updatable at predetermined points. An additional possibility is to set up IF THIS type conditions that would trigger further conditions. Upgrading replayability would be enhancee by sticking in VLs which are variable in effect. VLs whose values are can be designated would also place a lot more designing power into the editor. Locations that would be defended by the AI tenaciously, but not affect score would give design a stronger AI play. VLs with a value that would adjust to zero at games end might serve if VL values are used by the AI to make decisions. Such design options might make using the editor more difficult, but if placed under buttons designated "advanced play" they would be optional to designers. Its Christmas season, so what do you expect; turkeys to be empty and their fillings all savory?

Welcome Tex, are you domiciled under the Lone Star, or claiming some other connection?

Duly noted and acted upon. Thanks John.

Michael, I suspect that you are most correct. I also suspect that those who currently are thinking in mostly CMBO terms will find their time rather reoccupied when they get the new game. Just playing around with the new features and terrain and mapping capability will be just a mite preoccuping to say nothing about a rather different world of units. Besides, just think of all the flameing posts that arguing over grog details and minute game features will create. There may just be a detail or two that will deserve patching and ship load of posts as well. Crossing the Eastern Frontier line may just put Western Europe a little bit on the back burner for a while.

Too many factors at work for conscript vs professional to tell a tale. There is first the already mentioned attitude of "I'm here to fight" and "Crap lets get this over and go back where the sun smiles." Professional may mean set in ways and patterns that spell defeat as the fixation of the last war encounters the realities of the present one. Professional can mean doing it by the wrong book. Conscript can mean fresh and open to doing it as is obviously necessary unblinded by peace time poopery. Obviously a professional in fact as well as in the pro forma fulfillment of some admisistrative checklist is going perform as well as committed, trained and ready people can. Professional is too easy a tag to paste onto a person. But what meaning should it possess to mean what we would want in a soldier? Comittment to his country, to his cause and to the brotherhood of his fellow soldiers. Knowledge of his business. Expertise in methods, tools and uses. Practice in their application. An expectation of long service. A conscript may possess as much comittment as a professional. A conscript may gain knowledge of his business. Time and application may make it sufficiently wide and deep to accomplish all that the professional can. A conscript may gain expertise simularly A conscript may become sufficiently practiced to perform right along with the professional seamlessly. A conscript may become a professional. War is full of tales of conscripts, even privates who keep the faith of the soldier when a professionals fail, even officers. Yet, were my life to depend upon it, and who knows it may, I would prefer to have professionals out there between me and destruction - - provided that that professionalism is not a hollow shell. Or another way to look at it is that some are conscripted by the government and some are self conscripted. In a sense all are conscripts. War makes professionals of both. Or kills them. Peace is often the greatest foe a military faces. The politicians rise in rank and the warriors languish. War then rearrives and determines which army has been the most harmed by the peace. Rare men are rare, professional or conscript. They make the difference in the squad or in the general staff. It is a very great luxury to have a war to fight that can be handled by the professional soldier. That an enemy may provide that luxury by being small or by being confined should be greeted with great appreciation by the conscriptable population. It is not always the case and often security if not survival depends on it. Often it is not mere conscription that weakens a body of soldiers, but more frequently it is haste, sometimes unavoidable haste, and sadly too often unprofessional professionals failing to prepare their conscripts. A government may fail its military by inadequate support. Even "professional" militaries have their fresh and new faces to bring up to snuff and old ones to keep there. A professional cadre can fail, laying in comfort basking in the warmth of their last success with parades, shows, briefings, splashy training that does not train, pushing M1 pencils over fitness reports, converting barely adequate funding into private luxuries for their personal use and for their own class of soldiers while lower echelons live in straighted circumstances. "There are no bad soldiers, only bad leaders." This writting may be a rambling crock, and I am not satisfied that it adds much to the question. Perhaps the question could be better too. I am not so sure that the conscrip vs. professional question is the best expression of what is at stake. Surely a military requires a professional knowledge and practice at its core. But, when war comes, the dismissal of the conscript may be its costliest mistake. Dismissal of conscription has a likelyhood of converting the sudden need for warm bodies into cold bodies. The need is for the professionalizing of conscription. A nation owes its young men of warrior age a routine military background of sufficient professional quality as to make any sudden and compelling need find a body of conscripts already prepared to be soldiers. In those who face the enemy there is a great likelyhood of being killed, especially in a protracted campaign or especially campaigns. If we suffer as a population for having sent children to war and to die, then surely it is worse for them to die and for the enemy to prevail as well. Conscription forced by circumstances is far more likely to be rushed and unprofessional; professionalized conscription far better fills the ranks with soldiers with qualities that sometimes are the envy of professionals, if the so called professonals are doing their training jobs. Professionalism is a practice- and the better question is what is that practice; because, practice does not make perfect, it makes perminant right or wrong. I think on my company commanders. I never went to war with them. Some were showy and some were quiet. They were all "professionals". But did they measure up. I suspect they were all tested in battle. Surgeons must enter the human body and spill blood in becoming professional. For soldiers there is only battle itself. No experienced tutor standing at their right hand to take up the knife and show how it is done when he hesitates. He is an officer. He is expected to perform. He is a professional without having demonstrated it; at least until dead are buried, the wounded are evacuated, and the living are made ready for the next onslaught. That sergent at his side, who steadied the trimbling hand with his own experienced calm, he may have been a conscript as well as private seeing his first action a month ago, perhaps sooner. By the grace of God, the enemies misfortune, and a little luck we may have qualified a new professional. Now all that training and practicing may be of some use. Give it some time. Oh, do I dare push the button on this pile? Shall discretion make me wiser and protect me from the hellish flames of scorning distain? Or shall this find a kindly word to warm a quaking gut? Or is this muddled opinion of such little importance that winds of praise or damnation alter the slightest ambiant breath not a whit? That conviences me. I submit the damned thing. It was a satisfaction to say it, so not making any difference is beside my point and your point is if you have read it; you deserve it. Sensible people quit reading much sooner.

Weapon rarity might be better handled with fuzzy logic rather than buy points except in designer scenarios. One might REQUEST rather than buy certain types of weapons or units and the game engine handle whether they are available. Whether this thought might have wider application or indeed have any - - -

Read a news item reciently that stated that Intel had developed an improved chip technology that would allow computer speeds up to the neighborhood of 70 Gig hz. Now think what that would do applied to ram chips and what that would do to CM programming. It would probably create such a possibility overload that OSHA would terminate the game as a safty hazzard to programers as well as to the playing public.

Ah ha! Emperical reports on explosiveness. Should I try to retireve my former statement of expectations by saying that anecdotal evidence is unacceptable? But that is all that a double blind experiment secures, another anecdote. Just carries a little more weight. Seriously, these items are interesting to me. In my limited observation the substances under our spotlight here in small eraser sized quantities only sizzled around on top of the water emitting light and burning hydrogen. (K and Na are both lighter than water.) But, the demonstration may have been too gingerly handled so that the bits were not thrust under. Sodium itself is not unstable as nitro is, does not carry any oxygen generating properties as gunpowder does and is only active at the surface of the mass in contact with water. The action there is vigorous. The hydrogen could not ignite until it contacts air and there it could pop some as portions might make an explosive mix. As the metals are of rather low melting points, low enough for the heat of the reaction to reach, I would guess that melted metal could be splattered about in the right circumstances. Certainly the heat could generate steam as it boiled the water in contact with the metal. That could cause some forceful ejections. But, I would not expect anything comparable to a purpose composed explosive device. I would think that Willie Peter would be more effective in a harbor setting than sodium, as that latter substance would quit reacting as soon as it landed on dry targets. Any residual heat contained in the blobs would dissapate rapidly and only the most combustible targets might have a chance of catching fire. The WP would not burn as it submerged, but it would burn on dry target structures. So while rather spectacular appearing and possessing some dangerous properties such as creating caustic hydroxide solutions as well as evolving heat, steam and burning or exploding hydrogen it does not surprise me that the idea of a harbor bomb was passed by. As reported in the Forum it appears that more vigor than I had supposed takes place. Such is the nature of limited observation and only theoretical information. My highschool lab teacher told her class that an industiral donation to the school of a very large quantity of sodium before her arrival was viewed by her with horror. It was desirable to dispose of it, but as in belling the cat, the proposition posed a quandry. That was rather before commercial hazardous waste disposal. I don't know what happende to the mess. Just a few years ago the school burned, but I did not hear of any "unusual" experiences in firefighting. [ 09-08-2001: Message edited by: Bobbaro ]

I have had it happen to me as well. I am supposing that in the typing process an extra return somehow gets generated to sit unseen and only show upon posting. I have fixed it on occasion by editing. There I picked up on the likely spot, deleating until the words in the broken line joined, then put in a space and reposted.

Metallic sodium and potassium react with water to release hydrogen and heat. A nice combination for ignition. I suspect that in an open space the effect would not be any more dangerous than a burning gas break. Dangerous enough but localized. I believe that the prefered liquid for white phosphorous storage is a petrolium liquid. I have seen it stored under kerosene. Actually volitile refers to evaporative properties, if I recall, not meaning explosive per se. Water is volitile. Inflamable liquids of high volitility can create an explosive air-gas mix quickly and if ignited, boom. On the otherhand they may just burn vigorously out in the open. I would think that the time of effect of burning phosphorous without other complications would vary with the size of the round. One minute seems a little short to me. But perhaps it is right. It would depend on the strength of the charge that splatters it. If the chunks are relatively large it could burn for some time. Think of it as a thick grease that is burning. Pieces that lie in situations that slow air movement to it would burn slower. I read an account of an airman in the Pacific Theatre being hit with a piece of Japanese WP flack. It burned into his flesh and was still working when his plane landed sometime later. I haven't seen any reference here to WP bazooka rounds other than mine, which came from G Company's War, edited by Paul Roley. I suspect that what BTS requires for any reconsideration of WP is to be presented with documentation of how much was supplied to troops in a given theatre and in what types of ordinance. The more forward the better. [ 09-04-2001: Message edited by: Bobbaro ]

Some thoughts there of much merit, John. Fuzzing up these responses is just as applicable as where it is used in other game functions. Could surely up the reality quotient. Some more. [ 09-04-2001: Message edited by: Bobbaro ]

Thanks Steve, know your're busy, things change; if they don't something is wrong. Success is often as difficult in its way as the contrary. The greatness of CMBO did not set a standard, it set off a whole new processs for gaming. Your current work obviously has to keep moving. Repetition of the grand times of CMBO's development, however wonderful, just won't happen again. You can't go home, or jump into the same river. Home is where you make it and likewise the river where you are. [ 09-01-2001: Message edited by: Bobbaro ]

Read a first person account of bazooka white phosphorus rounds being used in urban battle in Saarlouis-Roden by Lt. Lee M. Ottis and a couple of GIs. Their unit Co. G of the 328th in the 26 Division was in a standoff situation for several days with German troopers occupying positions across streets as well as within the same block in buildings in view. They had access to a cache of munitions that included quite a variety of material including various bazooka rounds,hand granades, rifle granades, bangalore torpedoes, one pound and 40 pound cone shaped charges(beehives)compositon c, booby traps, and ammo. They acquired this in variety and quantity. Additionally they had 3 bazookas and 2 flamethrowers. And at times they got bored and had means of relief in hand. After several well placed bazooka rounds the building they were firing at began to crumble and fall. They they used WP to fire for effect. They also fooled around with placing rounds over the buildings in indirect fire. They were basically at best just harrasing their adversaries. Besides it was fun. This was from G Company's War by Bruce E. Egger and Lee MacMillian Ottis from journals independently kept by two soldiers, who fought in the same company, edited by Paul Roley, The University of Alabama Press. I believe I have also read of WP bazooka rounds being used to ignite wooden buildings to rid them of their occupants.

Lights - flashes of any kind destroy night vision. That fact is beside the point as illumination whether by searchlight or flare or star shell or parachute flare can be used to provide a continous illumination of a sector of a battlefield. A flare fired locally whether by tripwire flare gun or thrown ground flare is highly suitable for exposing and pinpointing infiltrators, or an attacking party or parties. Subsequent illumination provided locally can fill the gap between initial contact and supporting fires inclusing more substantial illumination. This can be an infantryman's best assistant for preventing night attack overruns and infiltration. A competing form of illumination used was searchlight illumination against clouds. Defensive positions weakly held in strategies seeking to provide a strong attacking force elsewhere can use all the force multipliers available and illumination is one of them. Firing my M1 once was sufficient to destroy night vision anyway. But for CM for reasons stated all that is moot anyway.

Pvt. Ryan, regarding your statement, "You can't kill what is already dead. A CD already has a hole through the middle. " Have your ever considered your own body; it has a hole all the way through it too with an entrance wound and an exit wound. It is just a little convoluted in between, not as neat as a CD. Of course the wounds have "healed" somewhat at either end and the bullet channel as well without closing the exposures to the outside. A certain amount of leakage does occur though. The evidence suggests that you still live regardless - - - Don't take this as personal, We are all simularly "wounded". or most of us anyway. In some the exit wound is exaggerated and in some the entrance wound is especially leaky. I would not qualify for the latter problem would I?

A non-military night vision story in an urban setting, highschool age guys slipped in to a city park swimming pool. The best diver in the bunch had just arrived at the end of the high board. Just as he began to set himself in motion prepatatory for the jump, a buddy hollered out, "There is no water in the pool - - I suspect that there was a dampness on a pair of swim trunks shortly, however.

Does this make one think about the quality of the stay at homes of the military, think about the also rans that are not hot enough for the front lines. And the fellows relieved for lack of combat savy,who are kindly given safe jobs back in the rear echelons. Perhaps the former are the worse. They have risen to the top through political expertise and perform accordingly; penis measuring their way through the ranks. It is the fall out effects of peace on the military. McNair and Lee, two weiners. Are we any better off in present circumstances. Not likely. Good luck young men.

Fun and games in the dark: Yeah. I live on approximatly 135 acres of Texas hill country limestone cut with a mostly damp creek, studded with oak and juniper + misc. vegitation and cut by erosion into ridge and ravine. Prickly pear in the legs, twigs in the eyes and a fine roll down hill rewards misteps. On cloudy days venturing into infrequently visited thicket can be disorientating and require a little recon to straighten out the directions. In that state of mind stumbling out on to more familier terratory from an unusual direction tends to make the familar look as foreign as the rest. Add night into the mix and then the fun really starts. Once walking the dog out in that stuff, dark slipped up without me noticing or worrying much about it. Then I could not find the trail for easy walking. Searching and searching some more did not help. Frustrated and hungry and having the stars for as easy a guide for direction as the trail, I just gave up and took off in the correct general direction. But, then the fun began. The dog was determined to choose his own trail, picking the opposite side of every tree and running under stuff of impossible enganglement, while I pulled and cursed with him on the leash and struggled with the rifle or whatever it was I carried in the other. Where the tree trunks allowed passage, juniper branches interlaced and conspired to block passage or at least punish such passage as they allowed with scratches, pungent sap, and tiny needle punctures. After a number of back tracks and plunges on different tacks that seemed endless, stopping to retrieve lost gear, glasses and entangled leash, I lost the guidance of the stars. I then pulled out my compass the use of which mainly served to complicate my juggling act. After much repetitous struggle I came to the steeply sloping hillside and at least felt some progress being made. Prior to that I had been thinking I had entered some warp in which this would go on forever. The very warm, humid night did not help. Sweat stinging the eyes and tiny punctures and lacerations addeded to the misry. Even though the slope provided its own difficulties, the vegitation was a little more open and it signaled progress. Which of course encouraged the dog, that now threatened to pull me off balance in a headlong fall, slide, rocky grind, roll, whatever, down hill. Jerking him back with all the force I could muster with one now very tired arm, I did what I could to discourage that. Fortunantly the steep slope was only maybe 75 meters to the open flat at the end and its recognisible passages to reach the creek (add wet feet). Thense it was only a simple matter, past the field and barns and home. Stuff that would perhaps be daunting to a stranger, but duck soup for me. Back recovering at the house, I wondered how I had failed to collide with at least one patch of prickley pear. Now suppose I had carried the extra burden of risking encounter with randomly falling morter rounds, or fire from equally dangerous hostile or friendly forces. The psychology of that is the stuff of which combat fatigue is made. For some more and others less. Driving in the moonlight! Without headlights, thanks for that prompt. I was not driving and the motivation was the beauty of it all, not curiosity. But it was something! No traffic in the wee hours and a country highway of Texas porportions. A lovely experience. Lead a number of Girl Scout night hikes. It gave the young hens some badly needed exercise and distraction on arrival at camp. Back at camp quiet and sleep followed much more quickly. The tents now seemed much friendler and home away from home. At night the trails generally could be marked by the opening in the tree canopy overhead. But, busting through cross country fashon was better. Had some outstanding things happen out there. Once in a swampy river bottom with palmetto towering to 12 or 15 feet among the big trees and underbrush, I took my following along some planks paving the ooze. With nicely adapted eyes (the thick canopy shut out the light polution of Houston some 40 or 50 miles away) we bacame aware that the ground was glowing in a filigree of infinant pattern. It was the light of luminescent fungi. Next day the girls could not believe that they had crossed that expanse of muck on such narrow planks. I had a little trouble myself. It was the same sort of landscape that formed the "jungles" of Cuba in the fairly recient movie, Roughriders. It was not always trails and open woods. At a camp with alot of thicket and heavy woods the canopy closed in overhead with no moon and I strayed from the trail. Heck I had a compass and just struck out on a fixed azimuth. After boxing around thickets to resume the path and being frustrated with further thickets that blocked the boxing process into sub and sub sub, boxing I decided that it was not worth it at 10 + P.M. So, we turned around are backtracked. I was shocked to arrive at our starting point where a style crossed the barbed wire fence. Probably more luck than skill. Anyway, the struggle had accomplished the mission; we had no trouble with excessive giggling and rousting about that night. On another occasion, I was disappointed at having to use a track made for vehicles, just not wild enough for my tastes. Still it provided a special experience. One of the little girls popped on her flashlight, a forbidden violation of the night hike rules. The lights were allowed as a security blanket. But, I had observed an unexpected effect of the light flash. lighting bugs had returned the flash in synchrony. I had the troop all squat or sit and watch. I held my light overhead and described a circle with its 6 volt beam, turning it off at the end. After a count of maybe 3 seconds. the trees and shrubs around that clearing opened up in the fashon of "the wave" at a sports stadium repeating my light sweep with that of hundreds of little glows opening up then going off in the same sequence. We stayed there some minutes playing at communicating with the bugs in their own language. I suppose the little creatures (bugs) were disappointed that an amourus connection did not occur in porportion to that great announcement that flooded their senses. I curse the encroachment of gratuitous illumination of our nights by a largely useless waste of light pouring into the sky where it only serves to blind the bats, night hawks and their prey. Town is ten miles away and the tourist trade seems to have made folks think that the more they can spend on electricity and illumination, the more money lands in their pockets. It has all the charm and grace of a police lineup. Even out in the countryside people somehow think they are safer with the insecurity lights they erect to unknowlingly help potential intruders negoiate the obsticles that would otherwise trouble their approach. I think seeing in CM nights is too easy. Adding fog etc, makes for a closer approximation. I liked that account of the ambush in gas masks. The "enemy" appeared to have standing there all along in the mind's misperception. That is what night does. Seen things disappear in the same way. Dawn often reveals numerous intruders as stumps, bushes, and rocks. The eyes make them appear and disappear. It is the action of the failure of central vision and the success of the perpherial, off center parts of retna. My wife has macular degeneration that has done that for her without the dark. What seeing she does is perpherial. A very hit or miss proposition. I am obviously waiting for a PBEM turn to show up. [ 08-21-2001: Message edited by: Bobbaro ]

PM bimp.